1.6.4 Selection of offshore sites
The Habitats Regulations apply to the UK land
area and its territorial sea (out to 12 nautical miles from
low-water mark) (see Section 1.1.3.1). In August 2007 the Offshore Marine Conservation (Natural Habitats
&c.) Regulations came into force, providing the legislation
to designate sites in UK offshore waters.
In November 1999, the UK High Court found in favour of Greenpeace
in its case against the UK Government regarding implementation of
the Habitats Directive offshore (CO/1336/99).
The court found that "the Habitats Directive applies to the UK
continental shelf and to the superadjacent [sic] waters up to a
limit of 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the
territorial sea is measured". Prior to this judgement, the UK
Government view was that the Habitats Directive did not apply
outside UK territorial waters (12 nm from the coast). The UK
Government is now implementing the Directive in the UK offshore
area (waters beyond 12 nautical miles, within British Fishery
Limits and the seabed within the UK Continental Shelf Designated
Area) (Figure 1.5). JNCC was asked in 2000 by the UK
government to provide information to enable identification of
offshore SACs (Johnston et al.
2002). Since 2002, JNCC has been investigating selection of offshore
SACs (and SPAs) in the seas beyond territorial
waters on behalf of Defra, following a similar process to that undertaken for
terrestrial and inshore SACs (and SPAs). On 31st August
2007, the first five offshore SACs were formally advised
to the European Commission by UK Government. It is likely that
through JNCC's continued programme of work in the
offshore area that a further 15-20 offshore SACs will be
designated.
Figure 1.5: The UK offshore
area as defined by the Offshore Marine Conservation
(Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations, 2007.